India,Egypt agree to step up counter-terrorism co-operation

India and Egypt on Friday agreed to step up their counter-terrorism co-operation, focusing particularly on sharing of intelligence, operational exchanges and prevention of radicalisation of the youth in both the countries.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi met in New Delhi and agreed that “growing radicalisation, increasing violence and spread of terror” posed “a real threat” not just to India and Egypt, but also to “nations and communities across regions”.

Modi and Sisi witnessed signing of an ‘Agreement on Maritime Transport’, which, they noted in a joint statement, would further intensify bilateral cooperation by facilitating not only maritime commerce,  but also transit of naval vessels.

In a statement made after his meeting with Sisi, Modi noted that Egypt was a “factor for regional peace and stability in Africa and the Arab World”. He also lauded Egyptians as the “voices of moderate Islam”.

Modi said that he and the Egyptian president agreed on expanding defence trade, training and capacity-building, building greater information and operational exchanges to combat terrorism and cooperation on emerging challenges of cyber security. They also agreed to work together to fight drug trafficking, trans-national crimes and money laundering, said the prime minister.

text-align: justify;">Sisi said that his government in Cairo was keen to have robust security cooperation with India. New Delhi has of late been stepping up its counter-terrorism co-operation with Cairo, ostensibly because Egypt is a key player in West Asia and North Africa where the Islamic State and other terrorist organisations have been expanding footprints.

With several youths from India joining the IS in Syria and Iraq and other countries in the conflict zone, New Delhi is keen to make the mechanism for sharing information with intelligence agencies of Egypt more effective.

The National Security Councils of the two governments had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding in December 2015. India and Egypt also have a joint working group on counter-terrorism, which met early this year.

One of the key areas of bilateral co-operation between India and Egypt is to prevent radicalisation of youths.Modi and Sisi strongly condemned terrorism in “all its forms and manifestations”. They also reaffirmed their resolve to work together at the UN on concluding the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.

He told Sisi India was ready to welcome investments from Egyptian firms under the Make in India initiative, in the manufacturing and services sectors. Sisi invited Indian companies’ participation in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, particularly in sectors like petrochemicals, energy, agriculture, healthcare, education, skills and Information Technology.